


A Good Boy

by Anne_O_Nyme_913



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Will Solace, Character Study, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Implied Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, M/M, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace are Cute, Original Character(s), Pining, Pre-The Trials of Apollo, Slurs, This bad boy can fit so much fucking trauma in him, This is Free Real Estate, Will Solace has PTSD, Will Solace is a Dork, Will Solace is a Mess, Will Solace is a bisexual Disaster, no beta we die like jason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27493777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anne_O_Nyme_913/pseuds/Anne_O_Nyme_913
Summary: The war happened. He left home still a kid, and came back different. He didn't want to be a good boy anymore, because being a good boy didn't save lives. Good boys got killed. His friends died. His brother died. He didn't want to be serious and still and quiet. He wanted to scream. He wanted to bite. He wanted to punch. He wanted to hurt.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 84





	A Good Boy

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this thing. I hope you'll like what my exhausted brain made me write at 2am, and refused to let me go until I finished. English isn't my first language, so please be gentle with me !  
> Since we don't really know anything about Will's life, I decided that it was my Free Real Estate. Feel free to disagree with my headcanons, but please, as always, stay respectuous in the comments.
> 
> Ah, also just a tiny disclamer, the F word, the racial slur "Beaner" and abortion are mentioned (1) time.

Will was a very lively little boy, who loved to run and climb and talk and sing. He didn't care to be alone or with grown ups, he just loved it so much he could entertain himself for hours.  
He also very much liked to have Talks with grown ups, serious big talks about serious big topics, just like them. Mommy said he was bright. Most grown ups agreed, and called him a _Good Boy_. Said he would do great in school. And Will was happy. Doing great in school was good, and he was a _Good Boy_.  
Soon, Will stopped running and singing out loud, because Mommy said he was getting difficult, and bad. That good boys were serious and stayed still and quiet. And Will was a good boy, so he stayed still, and talked calmly.

Will met Alice. Alice was the best, she had black hair and black eyes and caramel coloured skin. Will loved caramels. She also loved fairy tales, and cartoons, and could get higher than everyone else on the swing, and draw better than anyone. Will adored her. Some adults called her Beaner, though, and Will tought that it was the silliest thing, because Alice was Alice, and not Beaner. Grown ups were weird like that, sometimes, messing up with names. Anyway. One day, he decided to prove his affection to her, do a big brave demonstration just like knights in her picture books. So he ate sand for her, and gave her his cookies. She took the biscuits, but rejected him. Will cried very much that day. Some grown ups called it cute, and him a future _Heartbreaker_. Will didnt like that, he didn't want to break any heart. He then learned to not wear his heart on his sleeve, and be careful.

Later, he also learned to stay quiet. He had his friend Adam, who played with him, and never called him weird for getting healed knees overnight, after falling and getting hurt just the day before. But one day, he did not believe Will when he told adults about the one eyed strange man who had tried to give them candies after school. He even called him a _Liar_ in front of the teachers, as if he had completely forgotten. Will also cried very much, that day. Even more when Mommy gave him this disappointed look.

With time, things didn't get better. He started to struggle in school. Very much. He got headaches while learning how to read, got called _Retarded_ , yelled at. They said he was a _Bad Boy_. But Will was trying so much, so hard, how could they not see that ? He also had troubles staying still, and broke stuff by accident a lot, they called him a _Troublemaker_. And once again, Mommy was very disappointed with him. But now that he was older, Will also saw how Mommy was worried, how other adults were mean to her. How they called her a _Bad Mom_. Mommy was good. She had raised him on her own, and he had never needed anything in his life. So he got into fights. And he got expelled. And Mommy started to get even more distressed.  
With years, Will grew up, learned How To Endure hours of lessons, to pretend, to do what was expected of him. To be a good boy so that mommy wouldn't be embarrassed and blamed for his own shortcoming.

Will also learned that he liked boys, just as much as he liked girls. It was a simple discovery, without a fuss. One day, he realised that he liked Super Man just as much as Wonder Woman, and that was it. Of course, Mommy found out. She wasn't happy, not at all, and gave him a firm lecture. But as long as he stayed quiet and still and a good boy,and didn't show off his _Abnormality_ , everything was fine. Mommy still loved him.

When he turned 11, he got into more troubles with strange peoples, and mom took him all the way up north, to a summer camp. There, he discovered the secret about his dad, and about his older siblings. About a big new world. He absolutely adored it. His brothers were the best, the coolest, the smartest, the most talented people on earth. He couldn't wait to go back for summer, and play basketball, and put colorful band aids on his friends’ scratches, and sing, and dance, and run.

The war happened. He left home still a kid, and came back _different_. He didn't want to be a good boy anymore, because being a good boy didn't save lives. Good boys got _killed_. His friends died. His brother died. He didn't want to be serious and still and quiet. He wanted to scream. He wanted to bite. He wanted to punch. He wanted to hurt.  
He fought a lot with his mom. He couldn't accept to play pretend anymore when more pressing matters were happening, and when danger was everywhere around them. His mom didn't get it. Will went back to the camp, despite his mother’s strong disapproval.  
There he met a boy. Well, meet is a big word. He saw a boy from afar who had dark hair and dark eyes and was very cool and very brave and who had saved many lives.

He lost many other friends. Another brother.

Will looked down and discovered his hands tainted with blood up to his elbows, and that he had younger siblings who were completely depending on him to take the lead and take care of them. He was 14.

He had killed already.

Will's return back home turned into a nightmare. He fought even more with Naomi. He told her that she had chosen to fuck with a god. Chosen to keep the child. That he wished _she had gotten rid of him from the start_. The silence and the slap he received afterward were heartbreaking. He ran away. And went back to the camp.

Another war. Will made sure to be the best counselor possible, he reassured people, kept peace, smiled, and was as selfless as possible : he couldn’t repeat Michael’s mistake. He was the next in line to go. He just _knew it_. Just like his brothers, they would all die one by one. A child of Apollo per battle was a fair price to pay in the end, for victory...no ?

Will stayed quiet, and pretended, and became a good boy again. Because he loved his friends and siblings, and because everyone was terrified, and because someone had to keep everything together. He thought about the boy, who had left long ago already, sometimes. He hoped he could see him again, before the end.

The battle happened, and he was ready. He left the camp, ready to face death. And he did, in a way. He saw the boy again. They fought. The boy saved his life. In the middle of chaos, Will saw the crazy augur escaping, and he felt the call of fate in his veins. He knew the time had come. His path crossed the boy's, so he pulled him with him, toward his own final.  
In the end Will did not die, but his prophecy was not wrong either. A child of Apollo did die, that day, but his relief was so great that he hated himself right away. How could he look into the boy's eyes, knowing that he had somehow traded his life against someone else's ?  
Luckily, the boy didn't hate him, and after everything, Will decided that good boys deserved their share of happiness. Deserved to _not give a shit for once._

And when, one night, he kissed the boy, and the boy kissed him back, well, he realised that he got spared somehow. That he was given a chance, a real one. So he caught it with both hands, and _didn't let go._

_He felt, for the first time in forever, like he could sing again. Like he was free to talk loudly, to run and climb and dance._


End file.
